Saudi: More Than 2.8 Million Illegal Expats Arrested

More than 2.82 million illegal expats living in the country in violation of residency and labour regulations have been arrested by the Saudi authorities in the ongoing crackdown that began Kingdom-wide in November 2017.

There have been 2,827,564 offenders, including 2,204,460 for violating residency regulations, 432,461 for labour violations and 190,643 for border violations, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

The report said that 47,863 people were arrested while trying to cross the border into the Kingdom, 50% of whom were Yemeni citizens, 47% were Ethiopians and 3% were of other nationalities.

2,015 people were arrested for trying to cross the border into neighbouring countries and 3,533 were arrested for involvement in transporting and harbouring those violators. 1,166 Saudi citizens were arrested for harbouring the violators against local laws, of which 46 are being detained, pending the completion of procedures.

Immediate penalties were imposed against 424,223 offenders; 385,618 were transferred to their respective diplomatic missions to obtain travel documents; 480,441 were transferred to complete their travel reservation, and 719,801 were deported.